Guilty As Charged
by blumints
Summary: The time of the year has come for Will Schuester to host his annual dinner party for his close friends; a tradition that has gone on for the past 5 years. However, Lord Burt Hummel passed under mysterious circumstances earlier in the year, leaving his two children to take his place for the evening. (Some Klaine)


**Guilty As Charged **

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**Prologue **

_An evening in the early days of April in 1928 at _

_Lord William Schuester's Manor House_

The grandfather clock struck 7 o'clock, it's tuneful dings echoing throughout the large, mostly empty house. In the darkness of the starless night the house did appear to be quite menacing and the way it was decorated inside was far from helpful. A beige wallpaper covered the upper half of the walls while the lower half were panelled in dark oak. Not a single gas lamp was in the old mansion. Since the death of his wife, Emma, Will had insisted that they rely on only candles for light in the evenings. This resulted in eerie shadows appearing as the night crept upon them. A few servants scuttled around the candlelit halls of the house as Will Schuester prepared for his guests. They should be arriving soon...

Not long after, there was a rapping on the door. The maid who was stationed by the door to welcome the guests quickly opened the heavy double doors to reveal Will's first guest.

"Good evening, Detective Anderson and Mr Evans." She stepped aside to let the men inside. "Lord Schuester is waiting in the parlour." Mr Anderson politely nodded to the maid before the pair went to join the host.

After that the guests appeared within only minutes of the last. Conversation flowed around the room as if they'd never been apart. The group caught up with one another and wine of all kinds was enjoyed between them. Small snacks were placed upon the coffee table so his guests would remain only peckish until the starters were served, something he was putting off due to the Hummel children having yet to arrive.

Despite how close the group of friends were with the late Lord Hummel, none of them had actually ever met his children before, though none of them thought too deeply into it because they were aware that his children did in fact exist as Burt had enjoyed boasting about their achievements over the years they had known him.

8 o'clock had long gone when someone questioned the siblings' whereabouts. "Will, did they mention to you that they'd be delayed?" Miss Jones, a singer in a famous jazz band, questioned.

Will shook his head, he glanced out of the window that looked over the long drive in front of his house. Still no sign. "They had not mentioned any delays or being absent."

The rest of the room slowly fell silent as they joined him to look into the darkness expectantly. At that moment you would have been able to hear a pin drop. The only noises were the sounds of people shifting their weight from foot to foot every so often as not everyone could fit around the window so some were stuck looking over shoulders. They stood for possibly five minutes before Lord Schuester sighed and turned to his guests. "We will assume they are unable to come, head to the dining room and starters will be served shortly."

Will Schuester was sat at the head of the table, to his left was Sam Evans; on the second seat down was Blaine Anderson; the third and fourth seats down were empty; on the fifth and final seat was Finn Hudson. To Will's right was Mercedes Jones; the second seat down was taken by Santana Lopez with Brittany S. Pierce on the third seat to Will's right; on the fourth was Mike Chang and sat across from Finn was Quinn Fabray-Puckerman. Arthur 'Artie' Abrams sat at the end of the long table facing Will since his wheelchair was rather bulky and didn't fit comfortably in any other place at the table.

Once again laughs and smiles filled the room. "So Quinn, why couldn't Noah attend?" Will asked.

Quinn had come from a wealthy family and was going to inherit the title of Lady. That was until she ran away with a factory worker called Noah Puckerman and eloped, when her parents found out she was therefore disinherited and disowned, left with close to nothing. Though a few months later she met Will Schuester and he offered her a job as a maid. For a year or so she worked for him, he'd noticed how well she patched up holes in his clothes along with her talents for sewing and he recommended her to a well off tailor called Mike Chang as a possible assistant, a job that she later got.

"He was busy, taking extra shifts at the factory and he told me he'd meet me here." Quinn shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. "I guess he took longer shifts than I expected."

Schuester froze. "He was coming?"

"Of course, he wouldn't miss one of these dinners for the world."

"Why didn't he alert me?" Confusion covered his wrinkled face.

"I'm unsure." Quinn became weirdly silent after that.

Quickly, Will aimed to change the subject. "So Blaine, are you and Sam working on any interesting cases? Got any funny stories?"

Blaine laughed along with his sidekick, Sam. "Not any that we can discuss, but I assure you we are working to crack some very intriguing mysteries." An amused smile sat on his face.

Suddenly there was a knock on the extravagant double doors that led from hallway into the dining room.

"Enter." Will answered.

Slowly the doors opened, revealing a maid and behind her were two wealthy looking strangers. One was male and stood at about 5'10", his hair was carefully coiffed; it's chestnut colour oddly complimented his alabaster skin and mysterious, glasz eyes. He clutched a decorative cane in his right hand. The second stood to the man's left, she was a petite looking girl, she stood at around 5'3". Her dark brown eyes had a glint to them that the cause of was hard to put a finger on. Chocolate brown locks flowed past her shoulders, reaching her waist. Stood next to the slim man, she appeared to be tanned though the guests at the table were sure had she not been stood next to the palest man on Earth that she would appear to be rather pale herself. Both of them dressed well, their clothes were made using the most exquisite fabrics and clearly came from high end designers. They cast somewhat cold, unnerving smiles across the room.

High spirits that once filled the large dining room was overthrown by an icy atmosphere, suffocating the remaining specs of joy.

"Mi'Lord, This is Lord Kurt Hummel and his younger sister, Miss Rachel Hummel-Berry."

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[29/11/19]

**[A/N]**: Hi! I thought this would be a fun AU to write though I must warn you there will be some disturbing content and will not be suitable for younger readers. Following chapters will be longer than this!! Also if the seating arrangements are confusing/hard to visualise, you can find a diagram on my updates blog on tumblr!

(Search for updates-guiltyascharged)

Check out my other stories, When The Ship Docks and Fairy Boy!

'Guilty As Charged' is also available to read on AO3, Wattpad and Quotev

Word Count: 1092


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